A Spectre in More Ways Than One
by Selkit
Summary: Garrus has an unusual question for Shepard. FemShepard/Garrus.


**Author's Note:** This was what I _really_ wanted to do for the prompt "ghost" in the 1sentence table that I completed for my previous fic, "Life Among the Xenophiles." But it was too much to fit into one sentence, so it spawned into this ficlet instead.

* * *

"Some of your people have...interesting ideas about the afterlife," Garrus said, his voice breaking a comfortable silence.

Shepard looked up from her datapad, glancing over at the turian. He was stretched out on her bed—_their_ bed now, really—his gaze intent on his omni-tool's extranet feed.

"You sound like you're referring to something specific," she replied, fingers drumming on the datapad. Setting it aside, she rose and climbed onto the bed, settling into the empty space next to him.

"Yeah. It's this thing about how each individual person has a..." He paused, searching for the right word. "A spirit, or an essence or something, that lives on after death and occasionally interacts with the living."

"Ah, you mean ghosts?" Shepard grinned. "Remind me the next time we're planetside, and I'll introduce you to the human tradition of telling scary ghost stories around a bonfire."

"So they're just stories, then?" His mandibles flared once, his expression perplexed. "Not real? I mean—I guess what I'm asking is, uh, did you ever...? While you were dead?"

Shepard's bemused frown faded into a look of dawning realization. "Garrus, are you asking me if I went around _haunting_ people?"

Garrus cleared his throat, but before he could verbalize a response, Shepard's shoulders began to shake.

He peered at her. "Shepard? Are you all right?"

She clapped one hand over her mouth, making vague flapping gestures with the other as she dissolved into guffaws. Garrus could only stare in bewilderment.

Somehow, in the course of her spasms, she managed to wedge herself up against his side, her face buried in the crook between his neck and his carapace. Letting out a long, controlled breath, she discreetly wrapped one arm around her aching abdomen and threw the other across his chest.

Several seconds passed before Garrus spoke up, ostensibly satisfied that she wasn't going to erupt into another fit of giggles. "Apparently I said something unwittingly hilarious. Again."

His tone was dry, and he huffed into her hair in mock exasperation. She chuckled again, quieter this time, her quick little breaths warming his neck.

"Nah, it was a perfectly valid question, which is why it was so funny. I was just suddenly struck by how completely absurd this all is. I died. I actually _died_." Her voice rose, a tremor barely audible beneath her words. "Died and came back to life. Some days I honestly don't know how I'm still sane."

He said nothing, but tightened his arm around her waist. Shepard heaved a sigh, staying nestled against him for a moment before she stilled.

"Wait." She raised her head, bracing herself on his chest. "Was that a serious question? About me...haunting?"

"I..." He shifted, unable to look her in the eye. "I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I never actually _saw_ you," he blurted, the words spilling out in spite of his reluctance. "At least, I don't think I did. There was never any hovering white figure or mysterious howling noises like the extranet talks about. It was just—everything I saw reminded me of you. Every time I saw a human woman with your hair color, or an Alliance soldier with armor like yours, I thought that they would turn around and it would be you." He ground to a halt, talons almost painfully tight on her hipbone. "I don't know. I was probably just seeing things."

She watched him a moment before tucking her head under his chin again, his mandible brushing her temple. "I don't remember," she murmured at last.

"Hmm?"

"Death. I don't remember anything about it." Her heart pounded, its rhythm almost harsh, as though it felt anger at the mention of its failure. "I remember space, cold, and panic. And then waking up on Miranda's table. I don't remember anything in between. I don't know if that means there actually wasn't anything, or if whatever _was_ just got lost in some kind of post-mortem PTSD."

She snorted. "I guess if there is any kind of heaven or hell or purgatory and I ended up at one of them, God probably erased my memory before sending me back. Couldn't have me spilling all his secrets."

Garrus gave a quiet, rumbling laugh and Shepard joined in, tipping her head back and reaching up to trace the outline of his mandible.

"We're quite a pair, aren't we?" she said. "The ghost and the angel. Well, at least _you_ got to be a superhero," she added with a smirk. "I just ended up being spooky."

She sobered, her expression turning thoughtful. "But for what it's worth," she said softly, "if I did haunt you, then I'm sorry."

He stared down at her for a long moment before his mandibles twitched in a smile, and he leaned down to nuzzle her cheek.

"Don't be."


End file.
